Seat belt restraints were first invented by an engineer named George Cayley to help keep pilots inside gliders. The first patented seat belt was created by Edward Claghorn 1885 in order to keep tourists safe in taxis in New York City. Over time, safety experts conducted research and demonstrated that such restraints prevented drivers and passengers from being ejected from vehicles thereby reducing injuries. Later in the 1950s, the Sports Car Club of America required race car drivers to wear lap belts during competitions and the Society of Automotive Engineers appointed a Motor Vehicle Seat Belt Committee to promote seat belt use for the general public. In 1966 the United States enacted the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 and required seat belts be installed in all vehicles sold within the country. In 1970, the world's first seat belt law was created in Australia, which required vehicle passengers to wear their seat belts at all times. Today, a majority of seat belts consist of a combination shoulder and lap belt releasably connected to a seat connector by means of a buckle on one side of a user and a retractor connected to the vehicle pillar on another side of a user. The release mechanism on these buckles usually consist of small, low-profile buttons and are discreet for comfort. Unfortunately, they can also be difficult to operate during an emergency because they can be difficult to find and need to be depressed at an angle facing a user. In some instances, users can become trapped in seat belts that malfunction in accidents or that fail to release when under extreme tension (such as when a driver is hanging in a belt upside down).
Engineers have started developing devices affixed to seat belts to release them quickly in such emergencies. U.S. Pat. No. 4,009,905A granted to Bejeannin disclosed a set of two cutting buckles for a seatbelt for the lap and chest belt. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,085,449A, 6,148,520A, 20060169120A1, 20040140142A1 and 6,453,564B1 granted to Hudson, Berns, Smith, MacDougall and Foley respectively, disclosed external retrofit cutters for seat belts that are not affixed to the belt. U.S. Pat. No. 9,925,952B2 granted to Flegar and Dardinier disclosed a seat belt cutter that relies on heat to melt said belt. U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,136A granted to Buchner disclosed a seat buckle remover having two blades and not a single blade. U.S. Pat. No. 8,608,247B2 granted to Roman and Schwartz disclosed a shoulder strapping system for comfort but does not sever a belt. U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,031A granted to Richter disclosed a seat belt cutting device inside a protective cover located on a belt that requires a user to first open the case to gain access to cutter. While many of these patents incorporate various forms of cutting blades in their inventions, none were found to provide easy access to a cutting device.
Consequently, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art, and particularly for a more efficient way of providing system and method of releasing a seatbelt in dangerous circumstances.